Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 106:3: Akeidat Yitzchak & Duties

The call to love G'd is addressed to levavcha, the seat of your mind and goodness, that which appreciates all the good G'd does for us; nafshecha, the seat of your passions and urges, which appreciates whenever it is indulged; finally, me-odcha, the aspect of you that desires what is functionally good, useful and expedient. In these three ways, man can express appreciation of what has been done for him. Since he is being appreciative, his love is really of a reciprocal nature. When our sages (Berachot 61) say that the call to love G'd "with all your soul, includes preparedness for martyrdom, this appears to mean that even when it seems that G'd has decreed one's death, one should not reason that since G'd is the source of all goodness that such threat of death emanates from some other source, is the work of Satan. At such times, re-affirmation of the Oneness of G'd is required. This is the reason the sages praise Rabbi Akiva who died proclaiming the shema yisrael. (4) After the affirmation, the verse "these words shall be ..on your heart at all times," stress the need to jog one's memory at all times by remaining aware of these facts. The first action that will help memory to remain alert, is the recording of the relevant passages on a scroll and affixing it in a visible place on all one's doorposts. The word veshinantam, meaning to study, teach repeatedly, is also related to the root of the word "to sharpen." Constant repetition sharpens one's awareness. In addition it may refer to a method of study, to whet one's mind by presenting Jewish history in a challenging manner. "To your children," places special emphasis on those mitzvot that concern themselves with the growth of children into adulthood. (laws of circumcision, first born privileges, marriage laws etc.) "You shall talk about them," concerns all those mitzvot which involve dibbur, word of mouth, prayer, reading the Torah etc. "When you sit in your house, refers to those commandments that involve relationships with fellow human beings, your family who dwell with you, as well as your neighbours. "When you walk on your way," refers to mitzvot which normally present themselves for fulfilment when you are away from home, i.e. return of lost property, sending off the mother bird prior to pocketing the fledglings etc. "When you lie down," refers to laws governing permitted sexual relations with your wife, restrictions due to her menstrual cycle, the observance of the laws of impurity, etc. "When you rise up," refers to the hours of your business day when you are "up and about," active. All the laws pertaining to fair dealings with your fellow men must be remembered during that part of the day. "You shall bind them as a sign," are warnings to observe regulations about forbidden foods, reminders to limit our social contacts with gentiles. "They shall be as frontlets between your eyes." These are warnings not to be misled by what our eyes behold, to be led astray. Eyes may be employed constructively, i.e. when seeing a naked person we are to see to it that he is adequately clothed so as to protect him against heat or cold. Our eyes should not be employed to ogle nudity etc. "You will write them on the doorposts." This refers to all the commandments involving writing; i.e. marriage documents, divorce decrees, Torah scrolls, phylacteries etc. "And on your gates." This is a reference to mitzvot involving judges, since justice used to be practiced in public, at the entrance of the city where the elders would gather.

(7)(3) The Midrash illustrates Moses' quest for relief by using the parable of an orchard whose owner had hired a general manager. During the term of the contract, said manager requests additional staff from the owner. The owner, while acceding to the request, refuses to pay the additional staff out of his own pocket, but deducts the wages for the additional staff from the salary of the general manager. The fact that G'd provided assistants indicates that basically, G'd was in agreement with Moses' request. Regarding the matter of the meat however, G'd seems to disagree with Moses, since He does provide it, even though Moses had not even relayed the people's demand. G'd considered it vital that the people not continue to view their situation as inferior to what their situation had been while they had still been in Egypt. For that reason, He provided such an enormous amount of meat. The fact that the people continued gorging themselves on the meat even while they had observed many dying as a result of their meat intake on the very first day already, seems to prove that they were thoroughly dissatisfied with their present situation, when compared to their former situation in Egypt. Had their real concern been the meat, their desire would have petered out as soon as they saw people die from eating meat. It was exactly these people who died for their unpardonable sin. The revulsion the people would ultimately feel for that meat, is punishment fitting the crime. (chapter 11, 20) They who had pretended that it was the meat they wanted, whereas in fact it was the moral strictures of Torah law that irked them, would see the object of their professed desire turn into something that revolted them. In this manner G'ds justice was displayed, since He did not have to devise a means to punish them, seeing their punishment was the natural result of being allowed to gratify their desires. The name kivrot hata-avah, given to that place does not refer to the original desire, but to the ultimate greed which raged until it had burned itself out, i.e. "buried itself." Ta-avah, greed, lust, is self consuming. This is the lesson taught in this chapter. Even the rationalisation that those who did not die from the meat were apparently immune to it, teaches volumes about the grip the ta-avah, had on the people. "Now you will see if indeed My word is dear to you or not." (11,23) The elders I have asked you to select, will indeed help you carry the burden. G'd implies that Moses had been somewhat hasty in rejecting the role of sole leadership of the people. Even at this time, when some of the worst traits of the Jewish people have been publicly displayed, it was easy to find seventy elders capable of providing leadership. Among them were such humble prophets as Eldod and Meydod who, though of the seventy two selected for potential leadership, drew blanks in the lottery that determined which seventy men were to fill these positions. Since they had been selected for potential leadership roles, their prophetic powers were not now curtailed. Joshua thought it strange that they could use their gift outside the holy tabernacle, just anywhere within the confines of the encampment. Moses, in his reply, expressed the wish that all of Israel would receive the gift of prophecy directly from Heaven, not like the seventy who had received their inspiration through him, since in the final analysis all of the people, being Moses' students had received their inspiration through him. From here we learn the source of the dictum in the Talmud that though most other things are the subject of envy and jealousy, a father or teacher is not jealous of his respective sons or pupils. (Sanhedrin 105) (5) Upon the seventy elders having been selected, G'd supplied the promised meat, the people not heeding the warning that it would be zarah, for them, i.e. loathsome. Otherwise, they would not have eaten from it in the manner described. Spending forty eight consecutive hours collecting fowl, (verse 32) shows us what a burning desire for meat there must have been. G'd demonstrated then that granting the people their own desire in abundance, led to tragic results, whereas nothing that G'd had provided for them, had ever proved harmful to them.

And this is the highest level in the knowledge of G-d, because one who truly knows Him will cling to His service and to fear of Him, according to the knowledge in his heart and mind, and he will fulfill the duties of the heart and limbs without effort and without hassle, but rather with desire and craving, and zeal, as David said: "I made haste, and delayed not, to observe Your commandments" (Tehilim 119:60), and on this the wise man said: "Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding" (Mishlei 3:13), and "Happy are they that keep justice, that do righteousness at all times" (Tehilim 106:3).